BalletBoyz the Talent 2014

In 1999 Michael Nunn and William Trevitt started a revolution. They were working as principals with the Royal Ballet, but they wanted to do something more radical. The result was the hugely successful BalletBoyz. Now, fifteen years later, the revolution has come full circle as they make their debut at the Royal Opera House as part of the 2014 Deloitte Ignite Festival. In three newly choreographed pieces – alternately intense, witty, muscular, lyrical – they demonstrate why they have electrified audiences around the world.

The evening begins with Alexander Whitley’s ‘The Murmuring’. Inspired by the flight patterns of birds (especially starlings) it is a fascinating, haunting piece. The bodies of the dancers weave in and out of each other, constantly making subtle shifts but clearly part of an organic structure that subsumes them as individuals. Music by electronic duo Raime pulsates beneath them, seeming to drive the evolution of the dancers’ movement, going from subsonic three-over-four time to more frenetic rhythms, shading the progress of their flight.

‘Metheus,’ is choreographed by fast-emerging talent Kristen McNally and set to a string composition by Jonny Greenwood, Radiohead’s lead guitarist. It takes its lead from the legend of Prometheus, beginning with a tender dance between two men that alternates between erotic and nurturing. As the movements progress, Greenwood’s music becomes increasingly playful in its rhythm and texture – a trio of men performs a muscular dance to the accompaniment of dry pizzicatos, and at the end we see an intimate duet accompanied by weeping cellos and sublime violins.

‘Mesmerics’ is the reworking of an old favourite for ‘BalletBoyz’. Created in 2003 and set to music by Philip Glass, it is re-choreographed here by Christopher Wheeldon. Until this point the movement has been vigorous and dynamic, but things become playful, echoing more classical ballet as the dancers pirouette lightly across the stage. It forms a lyrical and thoroughly enjoyable end to an inspired evening – the prelude, one hopes, to more works by these immensely talented prodigal sons.